Email is an ideal vehicle with which to disseminate compelling video marketing content, yet video is bafflingly underused in email campaigns. Admittedly, integrating video into email messages effectively can be challenging, but the benefits of doing so make the extra effort worthwhile. Marketing surveys have consistently demonstrated that the majority of email campaigns that include video produce higher click-through rates, increased time spent interacting with the email, and higher forwarding and sharing rates. Below, find out how video can increase your campaign visibility and get tips on how to embed video in your next email campaign successfully.

What Video Email Marketing Can Do for Your Campaign

From the reader’s point of view, video emails stand out from traditional email messages. Video entices the reader, encouraging and expediting engagement, and your metrics will reflect this. For example, MarketingProfs reported that online distributor Shoeline.com experienced a 44 percent increase in sales conversions when it began using video to feature its products. Aside from boosting click-through rates, here are a few other benefits of video email marketing:

Conveys your message quickly and simply. Few tools will get your readers to connect with your content more quickly than video. Readers tend to find video more interesting than text, so video immediately grabs their attention and invites active engagement with your content.

Saves time. In a few seconds, a video can emotionally engage the reader in a way that static images and text simply can’t. A video can capture a message in 30 seconds that would otherwise require thousands of lines of text that viewers likely won’t read anyway.

Invites virality. When people emotionally connect with content, they share it with others. Well-made videos are the perfect fodder for social media dissemination, and, before you know it, your message goes viral.

Boosts SEO. If your video is a hit on social media, your site receives more attention and thus a higher search ranking on Google. The result is a boon to brand awareness.

Plan Your Video Email Campaign

Now that you’re sold on video email marketing, it’s time to start thinking about your campaign. Before you begin, ask yourself what your objectives are for this campaign. For instance, do you want to generate leads, raise brand awareness, or promote events? With these goals in mind, research your competition and define your target audience. Once you have a rough budget for the campaign, you’re ready to take the next step.

Create and Test Your Video

Don’t let poor recording quality detract from your stellar content. Choose a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) for superior quality and speed. For help with the actual filming process, consider purchasing a video recording app that can offer features like pause capability, various zooms, and video filters. In filming, remember that audiences prefer short videos. In addition to losing your viewers’ attention, long videos present deliverability issues because they take too much time to attach and download. Aim for a video between one and two minutes.

Next, test your video out on friends, co-workers, and family to get feedback. Revise the video to reflect the suggestions you get. To maximize your message’s visibility, you might also consider posting it to Vimeo or YouTube. This will cost you nothing and can make your video more shareable.

Embed the Video in an Email

Including a video in its entirety within an email will consume far too much space, so the best way to embed it is with a thumbnail image. The thumbnail image should depict a compelling snapshot of a scene from your video. These images receive more clicks than a text link to the video. You might also superimpose a play button on the image so it looks like a standard video player and add text to further entice readers.

Make a Dedicated Landing Page for the Video

When viewers click the thumbnail, you’ll want to funnel them to a landing page that you set up to host the video. Consider having the video auto-play when viewers arrive to capture their attention and save them a click. You can also include thumbnails of other videos on this page to incorporate multiple messages into your campaign without making the email itself cluttered. Use the auto-play feature judiciously, though; having too many pages with videos that start without prompting can irritate viewers.

Include a Call to Action

You don’t want to miss an opportunity to generate leads once you’ve converted readers into viewers. Including a call to action (CTA) during or at the end of your video will help you do this. The CTA should make clear the next step you want viewers to take. You can suggest that they view related content, ask them to share the video with friends, and/or invite them to complete a contact form. Here are the features of a solid video call to action:

It’s obvious, actionable, and immediate

Includes social media buttons to share, like, or tweet the video

Gets contact information so you can follow up with viewers

Creates a sense of urgency (e.g., uses “now” or “limited time”)

Encourages further interaction with more content (e.g., “watch our other videos” or “download our white paper”)

Monitor and Measure the Campaign

Unless you track readers’ responses, you will have no idea whether your video email was successful. Of course, you’ll want to track which readers click on the email and what links they click, just as you would with a traditional email campaign. With video campaigns, however, you might also consider using more sophisticated tools to track and measure specific metrics of your video’s efficacy. For instance, depending on the video technology you use, you can potentially measure how long viewers spent watching your video, and, if they did not finish it, at what point they stopped watching.

One well-executed video can take your email campaign to new heights. Following the six steps mentioned here will lay the groundwork for a video email campaign that interests and engages readers in a way that text and image emails can’t. You’ll see the difference in everything from click-through rates to conversions.

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